So - what about the new, cheap Mac?

Now there's no excuse for using MS products anymore.

None.

Get a Mac.

Who needs excuses to use an MS product?

Zealous fanboyhood posing as advice isn't going to do anyone any good.

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Dlowan, it's a good move by Macintosh and might position them as a choice that can go mainstream.

You should note that you would get a keyboard and monitor separately, which can be good (for people who aren't zealous enough to want to pay the Mac premium for peripherals) or bad (for those to whom Mac design and simplicity of peripherals is important).

Personally, the next Mac I am eying is a laptop because I find Macintosh design more useful in portable electronics than on a desktop.

The mac mini is cheap, but still has all the downsides of any other mac with only a lessened downside in price (even the price for this mini is not competitive with PCs).

We bought a Mac laptop in October and love it. Mr.P ordered one of the new minimacs yesterday. It will easily replace his less than 2-year old Dell and we expect that his good monitor, keyboard & other peripherals will work just fine as they have with the laptop.

I'm hooked on MAC's and for the last 15 years I haven't
touched a PC yet. My current one is an iBook laptop.

The new cheaper version will get the kids introduced
as they most likely already have an iPod and iTunes to
go with it.

By the way, the new iPod - size of a chewing gum package -
cost only $ 99.

It may be good for car installations, too..

pictures
(pictures not with mini yet)

Intresting - thank you! - I assume my existing keyboard and such was compatible? (Should I be considering it - which I certainly am not right now.)

This one I was disappointed with.

I was expecting Apple's entry into flash-based digital music players to bridge the gap between flash and hard drive players.

By that I meant that as flash capacity increases and price decreases it would be great to get a flash player that can hold a few gigs.

Thing is, to best handle the additional capacity it would be nice to have some good firmware to organize the music, and apple makes some good stuff.

So what do they do? They make a mindless shuffling flash player.

C'mon Apple! I was expecting the apple touch to this market segment but the iPod shuffle is a mindless clone of what's already out there.

Its a good move on Apple's part, IMO - I'm with CdK in thinkin' it just might be the breakthrough device that puts Macs mainstream - clearly, that and Apple's other recent products indicate thats where Apple wants to go. Pricewise, well, its at the upper end of entry level, and for what it is, has, and does, it seems about right to mebbe a little pricey. I'd really like to see the concept take off. In the long run, if it does, both the Mac world and the PC world are gonna benefit. Healthy competion is good for all concerned. Apple is showin' some good moves. It remains to be seen if they can develop into a real broad-based player, but they're sure givin' it a shot.

I do think the new baby iPod is a miss; I could be wrong about that, but similar money buys other products with equal or better capabilities. Who knows - it could be a hit just 'cause its an iPod. I sorta doubt that, though. Had it been available for the Christmas season, the story might have been different. Without a few functional additions, matching other toys in the price range, I'm pretty sure its got little audience to sing to.

I love Macs - the expensive ones - for their prettiness! I would move my computer out of the dark, tangled messy hole - (politely called my study) - which it currently lurks in, if I had such a pretty computer.

I wonder if PC's will ever do beautiful?

How bout Wal-Mart selling a Linux OS laptop for $486.00? Could this be the start of true competition?

What I have planned for a car computer (to play music) is a linux-based machine running off a laptop hard drive in a tin can. Using a mac for that would be a big waste of money (imo).

For some, it would be easier though....

For the guy in the pics I think it's a religion! It's cool to see someone mod a car to that extent!



I doubt your keyboard is a USB keyboard so it probably isn't.

You monitor would likely need an adaptor but when I heard about this mac a few weeks ago I heard that it would ship with an adapter.



It depends. If you have been wanting a mac and what was stopping you was the price then it is a price breakthrough that is aimed at this segment.

As to whether you should use a mac at all it really depends on your use (and future uses) for a computer.

Macs are good computers for people who don't understand computers, so you might really like it. :wink:

The main downsides are not being able to use millions of programs (even the most die-hard mac fanboys or linux fanboys around can sometimes miss a PC for this, I know of one who keeps a PC just to run his financial software), and lacking interoperability with other platforms (this is less of an issue if you aren't trying to make computers work together in a network, and thusly is a bigger concern for workstations for business than a home PC).

The Mac's advantages and disadvantages are all central to its closed nature and limited use.

The more open the platform the more you can do with it (including break it). A closed proprietary platform has benefits that stem from not needing to ensure support for diversity.

Closed and proprietary has downsides ranging from pricing to liberties lost.

The use of a platform (i.e. how many people use it) has a direct correlation to possible uses for the platform (i.e. developers tend to develop for the vast audience over the small one if a choice needs to be made) as well as the vectors for platform-specific threats (same thing but in reverse, bad guys tend to code bad code for the largest audience as well).

If you just want to use it for the internet (email, browsing etc) it can handle that just fine (those are very basic needs that any os intended for home use handles fine).

If I had $500 to buy my only computer it would not be the Mac mini, but most of my reasons for that would not apply to you.

LOL, Wabbit .... if pretty was a factor to me, I wouldn't consider a Dremel tool, a solderin' iron, and duct tape essential 'puter desk items

Craven, the target group for the $99 iPods are children. My
11 year old Godchild and his friends are pesting their parents
already for one. $ 299 was too expensive for most parents,
but now, Apple has a niche for them, and considering that
a gameboy costs anywhere from $ 60 to $ 90, the iPod
is priced just right for this age group (11 - 15).

timber, I thought the same thing: Why didn't they come
out with it before christmas? This would have been the
hit under the tree.

dlowan, a friend of mine is a photographer and she
has this huge acrylic glass monitor from Apple and it
looks just stunning. I have the "reading lamp" (iMac)
in my office and that one gets a lot of attention too.

Lol - pretty is a major factor for me! However, clearly not the major factor, since I have bought PCs - well, only one since macs got so pretty - but I was tempted!!!!!!! But - I don't want the restrictions - after all, ther thing is to use - not look at - but why can't I have BOTH!!!???

"Macs are good computers for people who don't understand computers, so you might really like it."

Grrrrr


What is an USB keyboard?

Apple has sold enough iPods in that period..

Not really, (if you mean competition due to that and the Mac).

Wal-Mart came out with cheap computers a while ago, that laptop you reference is much cheaper than the mac (the mac we are taking about is a desktop and with the monitor is much more expensive).

Microsoft is making big waves trying to lower entry level costs for computing due to overseas markets where expansion will need affordability.

The market is trending this way for many many reasons. The trend was in place long before either that laptop or the mini mac.

So no, these items are not the start, they are but symptoms.



In electronics the margins for profit are slim. You can get a pretty PC at a premium just like the Mac's premium, but it doesn't make sense for most people yet.

Function over form will always be the right rule, form will be more and more important in this industry but right now another maxim is still true "price (measured in bang for the buck) over form".

The market segment that is either rich enough or vain (technically) enough to pay a premium for design is still in the minority.

Apple showed that it was there and saved itself in the process, but we aren't yet at the stage where form is that important to the market.

We'll get there soon, PC makers are already paying some more attention to form (though their offerings usually do not start with form as a foundation).

Not all of users are programmers. Not every driver is a mechanic..

Macs are cool. PCs are for dorks. I can't prove it, but you all know I'm right.

"We'll get there soon, PC makers are already paying some more attention to form (though their offerings usually do not start with form as a foundation). "


Yay!!!! Ok, I admit it - I'm shallow. Beautiful designs are a joy. Like some of the Bang and Olofsun things!!! (I can't afford them either, dammit!)